Originally Posted by
crfgon
just looking for some help on choosing a OW FFP to try for OWS or OWE. My status match with LATAM is coming to an end, and I really would like to keep having access to OW Lounges. If I could, I'd stick with LATAM, but I don't fly them and they have also introduced that ridiculous spend requirement. So with all humbleness, I ask for assistance! 
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(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Easiest one to get Sapphire or Emerald status that doesn't require that wretched minimum spend.
Hmmm... the only good choice I can think of would be Finnair. The program remains distance-based and has no spend requirement, with even the cheapest booking classes earning full status-qualifying points e.g. on AA. (see earning tables:
https://www.finnair.com/fi/gb/finnai...innair-flights). Don't scoff at the seemingly high thresholds for status qualification - like LAN/Latam, they use kilometers instead of miles for tier point earning purposes, so the 150k required for Platinum/Emerald actually are less than the 100k miles at most others.
However, at least four segments need to be Finnair-operated (codeshares on AA do not count), so you need to fly them at least a little bit. Try flying to Asia transatlantic via Helsinki once a year with them instead of transpacific - that should do the trick. Their economy cabin is actually very decent, especially for top tier members who get "economy comfort" for free (comparable to MCE on AA and E+ on UA).
In a rare move that's really good for customers, from next month onwards they'll switch to the AA/BA/QF model of points expiration - points will never expire as long as there's account activity once every 18 months.
I think that I`ll switch to them myself as well from next year now that AB is no more and I keep flying them more often now that they are the only dog-friendly OW airline left in Europe (BA is a nightmare in this regard). Depends on how AA keeps 'evolving' the spend thing. So far, I`ve been getting around the AAdvantage spend requirements by buying partner tickets and exploiting high-EQD-yield niches ("D" business fares on Finnair being one of those, discounted premium economy on AA/BA/CX and promo business fares on QR the other) - but all that doesn't help if you have to travel cheapest Economy.